This is the Year of the Priest in the Catholic Church. But there’s a problem with priests in the Diocese of San Bernardino: There aren’t enough of them.

Although there is a shortage nationally, with one priest for every 3,500 parishioners, the problem is almost four times worse in the San Bernardino Diocese, which has one priest for every 13,000 parishioners.

The shortage stems from an explosion of Catholics in the region. The number of parishioners in the diocese, which serves San Bernardino and Riverside counties, has nearly tripled the past 20 years, from 420,000 in 1990 to an estimated 1.2 million today.

In response, the diocese is aggressively seeking answers to the shortage by recruiting new men into the priesthood, putting lay leaders, deacons or nuns in place as parish leaders and using foreign-born priests.

And as the church fights to emerge from an international child abuse scandal, recruiters are more careful than ever about ensuring the character and qualifications of incoming priests.

“We are desperate but not that desperate,” says Sister Sarah Shrewsbury, who, as director of vocations for the diocese, is in charge of recruiting. “We haven’t lowered the bar.”

It’s difficult to become a priest. It takes a minimum of 10 years and lots of testing.

“It’s tougher than getting into the FBI,” said Shrewsbury. “It takes a lot of meaningful discernment with psychological tests, personality tests, the ability to work with people.

“We are looking for men who have a good relationship with God,” Shrewsbury continued, “with good potential to be good leaders, who are happy and can deal with problems.”

Only men are eligible for the Catholic priesthood.

Even though the diocese is not specifically recruiting foreign-born priests, it is taking full advantage of their presence in the diocese. Of the 185 active priests in the diocese, 62 are foreign-born. Some of them are in full charge of running their parishes. Others pop in just to say Mass or conduct other activities reserved for priests.

One of those foreign-born priests is the Rev. Stephen Ayisu, 42, a native of the west African nation of Ghana.

Ayisu was sent to the diocese by the group Divine Word Mission, of which he is a member. He is the spiritual and administrative leader at St. Anthony’s Parish in San Bernardino, which operates a church and school.

His path to the diocese was long and circuitous.

“When I was in high school, I wanted to study medicine to help others,” he said. “The Catholic hospital was very big.”

Ayisu is the fourth child in a family of eight children. Asked about the current violence in Africa, he described Ghana “as kind of an island in a sea of turmoil.

“Ghana receives a lot of missionaries, many from the United States,” he said. “The Catholic Church is growing very fast in Ghana.”

After leaving Ghana in 1999, Ayisu’s first assignment took him to Argentina.

“Argentina was my first love – Patagonia,” he said. “The weather was a lot like here, a little colder.”

He joined the local parish in 2006. Working in the United States has been a learning experience for Ayisu.

“This is my first (time) in a multicultural society,” he said. “I’m not actually experienced in the African-American community. It is an eye-opener for me.”

His work in the parish is “quite hectic, quite demanding,” what with the school, and priestly duties at Community Hospital and a nearby retirement home.

“But it’s part of missionary life,” Ayisu said. “I think I’ll be here for a while.”

Kirsten Thorstad, pastoral coordinator of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish in Yucaipa, represents another way the diocese is dealing with the priest shortage.

Though women can’t be priests, Thorstad is the administrator of a parish with 2,300 households and more than 400 volunteers. The ministry staff is made up of 10 people, including a priest and two deacons.

The Rev. David Andel is spiritual leader of the parish, but his role is divided. He works two days a week at diocese headquarters assisting the bishop as a canon lawyer.

As pastoral coordinator, Thorstad handles “everything from signing checks to preparing a couple for marriage.”

She also offers classes for Catholics who have strayed and want to return to the church. Each of her last two groups, she said, had about 10 people.

“My primary role,” Thorstad said, “is to help people connect with God and one another and then to empower the staff and people to serve God.”

Growing up and going to school, Thorstad never thought she would have the opportunity to serve in the way that she is.

“It’s a blessing that our people see that there is a place for the laity to have a good role, a good place in the church,” she said.

About women in the church, Thorstad said that Bishop Gerald Barnes “has a lot of women in leadership positions” in the diocese.

Thorstad said she’s not put off by the church’s stand on women.

“I’m comfortable with the pastoral role I have,” she said. “I still see the beauty of the sacramental roles of male priests.”

Serra House in Grand Terrace is named for early California priest Junipero Serra who helped establish the California missions.

Its role is to provide a home for men embarked on the long trek toward priesthood.

The 16 aspiring priests currently housed there arrived in August and will spend a year preparing to enter seminaries.

Their busy schedule goes like this:

6 a.m., Mass and morning prayer.

7 a.m., breakfast.

After breakfast everyone goes off to community college classes or work assignments.

5 p.m., formation class.

6 p.m., dinner.

6:30 p.m., watch the news with Brian Williams on NBC for a half-hour.

7 p.m., evening prayer.

After prayer they do homework or whatever other activities they have, except Wednesday nights. That’s movie night, and because it’s the Year of the Priest, all the movies have a priest as principal character, such as “On the Waterfront,” “Black Robe” or “Bells of St. Mary’s.”

Tyler Tripp, 23, of Banning is following in the footsteps of a great uncle, who was a priest in the San Bernardino Diocese.

“There are things about it that are just a joy,” said Tripp, whose size could pass for that of an NFL lineman. “I don’t feel any regrets for myself with my family. I don’t feel regret for work in the service of God. I am given the opportunity to think about things deeply before I complete training.”

Johnny Dang, 29, is among several Serra House seminarians from Vietnam.

“All my life I wanted to do more,” he said. His decision came to him “when I was working for a company in San Diego.” He said he was influenced by his time in a rescue camp after he fled Vietnam.

Trinh Sinh, 43, another native of Vietnam, hopes to become a parish priest.

“Everything I have came from God,” said Sinh, “so I want to return it to God.”

“I saw a lot of people (in need) in the refugee camps and in Mecca (in Riverside County). What can I do to help these people? As an individual, I can’t do much,” he said. “But I can do more as a priest. I can put myself totally to help.”

Most of the men said their families were totally supportive of their decisions to become priests.

That wasn’t so for Kien Kieu, 38.

“My dad said `don’t, you will be lonely,”‘ he said. “Mom supported my decision.”

“It’s a long process. When that sets in our hearts, we have left everything behind.”

One of the courses they must complete while at Serra House is “Diocese 101.” The course calls for working in the diocese to learn how it works and get to know “the people we might be serving someday.”

In August, at the end of their year, the men will head to seminaries in places like Chicago or San Antonio.

Shrewsbury said child abuse scandals roiling the church in Europe and previously in the U.S. are frequent topics of conversation with the seminarians.

“I bring that up,” she said. “I ask how they felt about it. How they dealt with it.

“Sometimes I take some heat from friends. It’s bad that it happened, bad that they (pedophile priests) were moved.”

She is a member of the Sisters of St. Clare, which is Irish and English and has its base in Ireland. Shrewsbury expresses great hope for the future of the priesthood and the church.

“We have more people inquiring and interested (in the priesthood) than at anytime within my memory,” she said. “This generation is a spiritual group of young people.”

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